Icicle

An icicle is a pointed stick of ice hanging from a roof, gutter or anything else cold enough to hold one. It forms when water starts to drip and then, halfway through, changes its mind.^[1]

An icicle always points down. It knows which way is down because that is the way it is pointing; when one was turned upside down in 1951 to test this, it simply pointed down from the other end.

Growth

Icicles grow one drip at a time. The longest on record reached 3.4 metres after a whole winter of careful dripping, and was then snapped off by a man who wanted to check whether it was real. It was.^[2]

Melting

In spring an icicle melts back into water and drips into a puddle, which freezes overnight into a flat icicle that has decided to lie down.

See also

• Frost – an icicle that never got going
• Puddle – where icicles go in spring
• Gravity – consulted on all pointing decisions

References

1. Drip, D. (1962). One Drop at a Time. Gutter Press.
2. Frozen, F. & Thaw, T. (1951). “Which End Is Down?” Proceedings of the Cold Society 4.
3. Eaves, E. (1963). “He Just Wanted to Check”. Winter Incidents, p. 1.